A long story

This is a story of my experiences so far cultivating and using cannabis. If youâ??d like some expert advice THIS IS NOT THE PLACE. I repeat YOU WILL NOT FIND IT HERE.
I was an early discoverer of the Herb, being that I had an older brother who never did a very good job of hiding it from curious eyes. I went through lots of stages of use throughout the 15-20 years of experimentation. From an excessively destructive amount to a relatively short stint of abstinence. Phases where I would only smoke it, only eat it, or only smoke it together with tobacco in a blend. This, all over the course of many years. Finally landing somewhere in between. Attempting moderation and the use of the herb in constructive, creative ways. I am a firm believer that Herb can be used as a healing medicine, but too often I feel it is used as a quick fix and also to mask issues that would be better off dealt without the Herb. For some it is a godsend, for others poison.
It was not until just recently I have tried my hand at growing. It has been an awesome ride. I have run the gambit of emotions. So far has taught me as much about myself as it has about the Herb.
I was offered a position running a commercial garden. I accepted with the terms of training and compensation all worked out in advance. I would be working for someone very genetically close to myself, but whom I had had difficulty being around in the past. I thought it worth a shot after hearing the compensation and being fully aware of the knowledge I would gain. So after moving the whole family across the country for the second time, the troubles began. I am not a confrontational person and believe that people should be treated with kindness. Well it took less than a month for myself and members of my family to be treated with such disrespect that our own self preservation and pursuit of peacefulness necessitated another move. So after moving counties and finding a place to live, I decided to give the grow a shot. Fortunately I knew someone who offered to help.
Well this someone ended up getting themselves into trouble and was not available to help, or chose not to. So with Cervantesâ?? bible in hand, the journey began.
Milady and I decided not to go too big or too small. We decided on a separate veg room and flower room and went with 3600 watts in flower. Then proceeded to make myself proud by becoming familiar with power saws, ducting, and all the other construction aspects. It was fun and rewarding building the rooms.
I was able to secure some clones from an unknown quantity through classifieds. The first mistake was taking what he decided to throw at me which was about SIX different strains. As a beginner I found that number to be a little excessive and feel I would have been better just working with one or two and intimately getting to know it.
It was about this time that I realized a grower friend of mine whom I had known for twenty years was too preoccupied with himself to offer any guidance. I began to notice that people were really elitist about their perceived knowledge, and always comparing their gardens to other peoples. It was truly disgusting to watch two supposed friends trash each otherâ??s operations behind the others back. I began to see a pattern here. People thought that the knowledge of growing the herb BELONGED to them.
So back to the clones. I found a few mites and contacted the supplier who said no problem, and gave me a spray bottle of Floramite. Said just give them a spray of this stuff. Having no idea what it is, I did a little research and decided this was not something I wanted on plants I would be smoking and cooking with. So I went with the books recommendation and dipped the clones in a vegetable oil. This destroyed through suffocation half of them. So I went back to get some more. For the mite problem I was gifted a few 1 ½ ft â??white widowsâ?�. So I decided let me get ahead a bit and mama these two and take clones off them. Meanwhile we are switching the first batch into flower. I am fighting powdery mildew and learning exactly what it means to BURN THE HELL out of these unsuspecting girls. I thought it perfectly intelligent to follow the directions on the back of the Botanicare bottles. After finally thinking I have that straightened out, it was time for a week long trip that was planned before all these new hobbies began. We were about 3 weeks in flower and the day before leaving I found some nanners on two plants. Hmmm I thought. Pulled them off, and informed my caretaker for the week about the issue.
Came back a week later and the room was entirely pollinated. Found a few opened nanners and growth had come to a halt. My fault, no doubt. It was about this time I discovered Cannabis.com. Like so many others, it was found at a time of extreme distress. Through the generous help on the site I determined I had some light leaks and I fixed the problem. I decided to let the plants go and then 3 weeks later after seeing very slow growth and receiving the electric bill I decided it best to start over.
One of the most exciting things in the first attempt was the practice of patience. Sure these are fast growing plants, but when you are spending so much time with them, they donâ??t always seem so. It just helped me to stop looking for an end result and start enjoying more the journey of the cultivation. Make no mistake, I was still stressing.
To try not to drag this on to long, I took a lot more care with the next attempt. Had the Veg down well and was growing nice green plants. So I moved the WW clones into the flower and also some other grown from seed. The ones from seed had a powdery mildew issue and after battling it for so long last grow I decided to spray them with baking soda/water. I mixed it too strong and burned the hell out of the plants spraying with the lights on. For the next two months I watched as another fan leaf perished. In the end the nine plants produced ¾ of a pound of pretty good smoke. The other half of the room was the white widow clones gifted from the clone guy. I battled them with mites and eventually wiped them out, and then about a month into flower I realized they were not growing too vigorously. Turns out they were nothing even close to White Widow and were stringy, airy, nonsense. They ended up being turned into butter. This was a huge disappointment because they were the healthiest plants I had grown to date. Lesson learned, ***do not attempt to flower large amounts of plants that you have never seen finish*** Doh!
It was at this point that I decided to move things outdoors with the weather warming up. I am completely within my medicinal numbers and decided that if the police decided they wanted to come invade our privacy, so be it. With the way things have gone until this point spending money on electricity was quickly becoming not an option.
So I am on week six bloom of an early outdoor grow and I want to express my thanks to all those folks on this site who have helped me get to where I will hopefully be harvesting some grade A cannabis in a few weeks. Stinky, Rusty, Hound, Grey, Rhizome, Reaper, Opieâ?¦and MANY others . Your generosity transcends the early experiences I had of those selfish with knowledge, and have made a difficult learning curve, a little more bearable. People on this site with problems don't neccesarly "earn" your help, and that makes what is often done here SELFLESS. Selfless service is something the world and individuals can always use more of.
I wonâ??t count the chickens before they hatch, but this has been an awesome experience and I have put my heart and mind into it 100%. In the end I think that is the most important thing to do, whatever it is you will do, do it 100%!
Here are a few pics!! THC BOMB X WHITE WIDOW GOD BUD
Ps. These plants have been through a lot of stress but are happy enough for me.....until you see me back in the P.Problems sectionâ?¦AGAIN!!

That's killer man, way to go. Moving outside was smart.

word.:cool:

i forgot to mention that i have read in numerous places that God Bud is a difficult plant to grow, especially for beginners. I'm not saying it isnt, but it is the only plant that has looked consistently healthy throughout flower, that i have grown. WEIRD. It seems very hardy. Must be to withstand my sometimes yellow thumb:thumbsup:
Unfortunately i will have a hard time replicating it because it vegged in 3 gallon COCO containers, then i switched it into a 4 gallon and added soil. Should i do the same thing with it next time?

I am hoping that some of my troubles so far have been due to the Ocean Forest, and think i will try a new mix.

It may just be that the God Bud is best suited to your growing style... which looks like Style with a capital S. Your greenhouse plants look great- nice and big and healthy.

That is a wonderful story! I'm glad you have gained independence. The 'elitist' attitude taken up by some growers and breeders simply baffles me. If we are working for a cause, being freedom to grow our own crops, then we should all be partners in that cause, doing what we can to help each other. Withholding genetics or information just strikes me as greedy- Genetics I can understand if they are being used for a breeding project, but sharing with medical users especially in my eyes is more important.

Great post; I have to go get some food in me but thank you for sharing your story!

Thanks people.
I find the hoarding of certain genetics to be laughable. I know a bunch of folks around here that only grow the OG KUSH. And it is always on "lockdown". According to them it is the Best herb in the world, and because of this should be restricted on who grows it, so that those that do can make as much money as possible. And these are experienced growers who have been doing it for years. It makes me want to throw-up on their plants. with some spray landing on their shoes....sorry its a little early for that talk. Really though i think it is very counterproductive to the movement when it gets to that point. Its like POLICEing of strains...lame

I see people get upset about it and all i can say is there is a lot of potent genetics around